My Car A Splode

[Kowal]

So last night I was driving my car.  I've had it on the road since like Thursday of last week, just blew like 600 on insurance and 900 on repairs to make it road-ready.

I notice on the highway my speed is declining rapidly, despite the fact I have the pedal down pretty far.  I try to get off the highway and stall out at a red light...  In the busiest section of downtown.  I had to have a local cop call the nearest tow truck place, and thank god my friend Freitag was in my passenger seat or I couldn't have afforded the tow.

Now, here's the story for the damages...  The thermostat is definitely shot, that's what caused the overheating.  Coolant wasn't getting to the right side of the engine, but the left was fine, leaving my temp gauge still barely over the center line.  When the car died at the intersection, coolant was leaking all over the street.  My conclusion was a busted hose, and a busted thermostat.

My mechanic thinks to the contrary, that is, that the motor is shot.

I'm really depressed about it, so I decided to start this topic and see how many other TMDers have had stupid experiences killing their cars, especially this early.

[everythingitouchdies]

I'm really depressed about it, so I decided to start this topic and see how many other TMDers have had stupid experiences killing their cars, especially this early.

Well I have never killed my own car, but I did have a chick try to kill me with her car.

I know its not the same, but I was really depressed about that too.

Didnt you have problems with a window in a car with Brass Man in April? You have bad luck man.

EITD

[Matt]

pics?

[Bram]

Couple of months ago, something bad happened to my car as well. It is (or rather: was) a relatively new Ford Puma (<40,000 km.) in perfect condition.

I drive up to a friend, and people give me signals with their headlights. I'm thinking they're probably just warning me for a speed check further on, so I drop my speed to 10% above the max and forget about it. Then, all of a sudden, I hear a ticking sound. I check my indicators and nothing's wrong. I pull over anyway, and check under the hood. No weirdness there, either. Then I notice that a rubber flap under my car's front (some sort of protector strip) has come loose. I fix it temporarily with two rubber bands, a piece of duct tape and the panties my gf had forgotten in my car.** I drive on to my friend, who knows something about cars, and we fix it somewhat mroe professionally. I figrue I'll go to the garage tomorrow.

Anyway, I drive back home at around 2 a.m. Couple miles before I get home, the dumb ticking sound reappears. Still nothing on the indicator lights. I'm in a bad part of town at that point, all out of rubber bands (and panties) and it's the middle of the night so I figure there's no AAA service at that hour. I think 'fuck that rubber strip, it can't be that expensive', decide not to pull over and drive on.

Until my engine blew, that is.

The following morning, I have it towed to the garage. The was ABSOLUTELY ZERO oil in my car. NOTHING. I never bothered to check the level before, since usually it doesn't deplete anywhere near enough in between scheduled maintenance. However, I had driven >20,000 km. in the previous couple of months as a result of living elsewhere for my graduation research and it never occurred to me that that might be a problem. Also: the goddamn oil level indicator light was busted. The ticking sound I heard on my way back, though initially similar in sound to the loose flap on the way up, has nothing to do with the disconnected strip (which did end up having to be replaced anyway).

A rubber flap: 29 euros
A revised engine block: 3000 euros
Learning that you need to check the oil level at regular intervals: priceless.
 
For everything else, there's ManaDrain.





**= obv. the part about the panties was a lie.

[Kowal]

New update on my car:

The motor is roasted and toasted.  I need a new car and I think I'll be selling off my power again to cover it. 

[everythingitouchdies]

New update on my car:

The motor is roasted and toasted.  I need a new car and I think I'll be selling off my power again to cover it. 

I once traded a car for a shotgun, and got some money thrown in on the radio.

PM me if you wanna trade power for a vehicle, that could definitely be arranged.

Ben

[Grand Inquisitor]

My first car had basically the same thing happen.  In my case, I'm rather certain the thermostat failure was intentional on the part of the guy being a "piece of shit used-car salesman".  I'm not sure if yours was a product of chicanery, but I feel for ya.  Oh, and on the towing thing, if you're going to be driving POS's, you should really get AAA's plus membership.  I've saved enough in towing over the last six years to pay for the membership ten times over.  Since they'd tow up to 100 miles free, I could even have my old honda's towed across MA back to my mechanic from home.

[Kowal]

Yeah, I was intending to get the AAA service plus, but like, over a span of two weeks.  This just happened before I had a chance to do the paperwork.

[SpencerForHire]

I have a 1989 celebrity and it has always had trouble shifting gears and starting.  I thought it was just how the car was thanks to age.  I had purchased it from my gradma for 25 dollars and she always keeps good care of her car.  Finally I started going through my battery like a some sort of metaphore.  I took the car in. 
The mechanic quickly shed the light on the issues with my car.  Number 1 I had several wires on the starter swapped so it shouldn't have been working period.  Second, apparently the entire car is using ALL original parts.. Despite that in 1993 the car was suppose to have gone through a complete rebuild and replace of all the worn out stuff..
Now my car runs fine.

[Kerz]

When I first got my licence, some stupid chick slammed into me while going the wrong way in a parking lot. The insurance covered it, but the mechanic fucking chopped my  car to pieces. When I got it back (I needed a new front right and back left quarterpanel), the workmanship was.... awful. A runningboard was falling off and I was advised to "buy some glue", as well as the gas tank door not opening (I had to pry it). Upon further inspection, my bumper was held on with no more than TWO Sheetrock screws. Yes, the long screws which are used to attach sheetrock to studs. Two of those, and it looked like my bumper was on fine. Within the first week, the back part of the bumper came un-tucked from wherever he stuck it, and it was hanging a bit low. Tonight, I went over a speed bump and, there goes my fucking bumper. To boot, I ran over the fucking screw and it popped my tire! I had to get out of the car, grab the bumper, finagle it into the car, and begin to drive home when I realized the screw caused a slow leak. Overall, I was an angry, angry Kerz. I will be going back to the mecahnic tomorrow. With a bat.

[Kowal]

Yeah, that sounds like a good place to file a suit unless he gives you all sorts of refunds and free repairs/BJs.

New engine installed in my baby.  It should be road worthy as of tomorrow.

[Kowal]

New update:

My car is dead again.

Yeah, the same fucking thing my mechanic told me he fixed, caused my engine to once again overheat with no warnings from the lights on the dash or from the temperature gauge (which was hovering around the M in NORMAL)

I've been neurotic about this kind of thing happening again, so the minute it went over the half mark, I put the heat on to take some heat off the engine.  Apparently that doesn't work.

I was about 85 miles from my house in some assbackwards town in Vermont.  Thankfully, my mom bought me a AAA card this very morning.  100 free miles of towing was the biggest mise of the century.

So, of you lawyers from TMD:  Do you recommend I try to get my car fixed for free first, or should I take my mechanic to court immediately?

[rvs]

So, of you lawyers from TMD:  Do you recommend I try to get my car fixed for free first, or should I take my mechanic to court immediately?

And do what in court? It seems to me like you should tell him to give you refunds, and take your business ELSEWHERE. He fucked it up twice now right? What makes you think he won't fuck it up a third time?

[BigChuck]

I've been neurotic about this kind of thing happening again, so the minute it went over the half mark, I put the heat on to take some heat off the engine.  Apparently that doesn't work.

I've actually had to do this on more then one occasion. It has worked fine for me, but it sounds like you had much more of a problem then the minor ones I was experiencing.

[ill_Dawg]

Turning on the heat to cool off the engine DOES work, unless you havethe problem you most likely have.  It sounds to me like you have some crap in the bowels of your engine from where some dipshit tried to seal a slow leak in the cooling system from the inside with the $4.99 crap from Wal-mart.  That never works.  This would stop most of the overheated coolant from reaching the important parts of the engine, like the thermostat, the heater core, and the cylinders.  This would be the reason your thermostat didn't trip, it's just a stupid little bimetallic strip that opens up at a set temperature.  It's basic as hell and almost never to blame for the problem unless it's rusted to shit.
 
When your car died the first time, you had a blown head gasket.  That happens b/c the cylinder head and the block are made of different metals, so when they overheat they separate a little, you lose compression between the cylinders, and the force of the cylinders firing blows through the gasket instead of moving your wheels.  that's why you slowed down and stalled.  If you drive for too long on a blown gasket you warp the heads, which is expensive, as I'm sure you found out. 

You need to flush the whole system with some kind of solvent or you're just going to keep going through head gaskets, and they can only plane the cylinder head so many times before you need to replace it, so you don't want to let it get that bad again.  Listen to the sound of the engine when you start it up, a blown head gasket will sound a little more high-pitched than normal.  Also, if you can smell something sweet and fishy coming from the vents, that is burning coolant.  Also, look out for white smoke coming out of the exhaust, that means badness.

If you have any problems with it LMK, I've done this shit before.

-=ADAM=-

[Meddling Mike]

...........I'm sure you've heard it before.

[dandan]

-25 C and my car overheated.

Someone's a comedian.

It was repainted and they had left in overnight in an unheated garage. Consequently the radiator was full of ice. When I started it up the engine was cold so no problem. It waited until I got up in the hillls (a few degrees colded) then started to overheat. I couldn't understand it at first but then was undecided whether I should carry on (hoping a friggin hot engine would melt the ice, but risking the engine) or wait a while (letting the engine cool but leading to more freezing). After a little bit of ineffective playing under the bonnet and my girlfriend losing one of my gloves and a few ever shorter drives from normal to just off the scale on temperature, I managed to climb up to a motorrest. No phone!! I had a coffee but had to turn the car round, coast down the hill, find a public phone and then wait 2 hours for someone to come and get me. It was soooooo cold I was in a car with my girlfriend and we did nothing overtly sexual. Things snap off at -25 C!!!

[BigMac]

I parked my first car on its roof after falling asleep behind the wheel. After putting it back on its wheels, with the help of some people that stopped to help, it caught fire as my battery made contact with the hood and my gas was leaking all over the place. It burned to the ground.

My second car i parked against a wall after avoiding somebody that had run of the road in a curve was backing up his car to get back up the road. I had 4 other people in my car at the time and i know i took the right decision as running straight in the other car was worse than skipping the wall next to the road. The side of my car was a bit bashed but after that the valves of my engine started to get busted. That was a year after i got it.

I then decided (as i got a job by then) to get a good car. I find a good car (i think) and start driving it. After three months my distributing cable snapped (as i got it reasonably new i never bothered to look at it) and my engine went kablooi. That was 3000 euros worth of damage. Then after a year it overheated as i had a busted cooling system and never bothered to look at my dashboard. That was about 5000 euros worth of damage then as i needed a whole new engine. I just asked how much he would give me for it and vowed never to drive that brand of car again.

The car i have now i have had for about 5 years now. It runs well (knocks on wood) and my girlfriend agrees it drives well. The biggest expense i have had so far were the new tires. The rest is all minor. So i am a happy camper now but have had not to much luck on my first three cars. That hurts a lot financially and i am still not over it. Luckilly i never had to sell my second set of power. (i did sell my first set of power as i had it double at the time and it was my playingset and i got good money for it at the time).

The funniest thing was when i had parked my car on its roof a couple of months later i drove along that place with some people. They were sitting in my car with me for the first time when i told them that the burn spot in the grass we passed was of my car when it burned to the ground after i had twiddled it a few times. They weren't looking that colourfull the rest of the ride hehe.